Brush-out apparatus

ABSTRACT

An apparatus is provided to brush out loose particles of dryblend from a floor material. Plural brushes brush both across the flooring surface and along the flooring surface to remove loose material from certain areas of a pattern placed on the flooring.

United States Patent 1 Culp et al. 1

[ Oct. 2, 1973 l 54 l BRUSH-OUT APPARATUS [75] Inventors: Charles R. Culp; Douglas R. Eyman;

Walter J. Lewicki, Jr., all of Lancaster, Pa.

[73] Assignee: Armstrong Cork Company,

Lancaster, Pa.

[22] Filed: Aug. 9, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 279,035

[52] US. Cl. ..5l/78, 15/77 51 int. Cl B24b 7/12 [58] Field of Search 15/77, 102; 51/74,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,666,282 1/1954 Peterson 51/78 UX Primary Examiner-Edward L, Roberts An0rneyClifford B. Price [57] ABSTRACT An apparatus is provided to brush out loose particles of dryblend from a floor material. Plural brushes brush both across the flooring surface and along the flooring surface to remove loose material from certain areas of a pattern placed on the flooring.

3 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure 1 V BRUSH-OUT APPARATUS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION al.

The invention herein is one portion of the apparatus used to carry out the process of commonly assigned copending US. application Ser. No. 150,391, filed June 7, 1971, in the name of Douglas R. Eyman et al, and entitled Process for Producing Decorative Surface Covering.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention is directed to a brushing apparatus and, more particularly, to an apparatus for brushing a floor covering being manufactured.

2. Description of the Prior Art Above-mentioned co-pending application Ser. No. 150,391 relates to a process for producing a resinous composition surface covering having a multi-level decorative surface. The product is formed by depositing a layer of granular resinous dryblend on a backing sheet and heating the granules to form a porous cohesive layer therefrom. The sheet is then cooled and there is applied thereto a settable resinous ink to form a design thereon. The ink is gelled and, by brushing, there is the removal of the non-design carrying portions of the porous layer. Finally, the product is heated to fuse all the remaining resinous materials. To date, prior to the product above, there has never been a product manufactured by the above-mentioned process. Therefore, the need for brushing apparatus has not existed.

Mechanical brushing apparatus itself is old in the art. Even the apparatus used herein, in the form of individual brushes, is old in the art in that the individual brushes herein are conventional in the art. However, each brush herein is old individually in itself, and the brushes are not sold in the combination of the inven tion herein or for the purpose of forming the product disclosed herein.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The brushing apparatus herein is basically composed of three brushes. The first brush is an endless brush which passes transversely of the sheet material. The sheet material is so fed that it passes on either side of the endless brush. Consequently, the sheet material is brushed twice by the endless brush. The second and third brushing structures are rotary brushes which are mounted to brush in the longitudinal direction of movement of the flooring material as it is being manufactured. The brushes operate in different directions and, therefore, one brush will brush in the direction of movement of the sheet while the second brush will brush in a direction opposed to the movement of the sheet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The FIGURE of the drawing is a schematic layout of the brushing apparatus herein.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The basic process for forming the product which is brushed by the brushing apparatus herein is disclosed in commonly assigned co-pending Pat. application Ser. No. 150,391, entitled Process for Producing Decora- LII tive Surface Covering." The process for forming the floor covering and the composition of the floor covering are fully disclosed in the abovementioned patent application. During the forming of the product, the gelled ink will hold the sintered porous dryblend material in a sufficiently rigid condition that the brushing action will not dislodge this material from the carrier sheet. However, a brushing action on the non-design or non-ink carrying portions of the porous layer will loosen the bonds between the sintered granules and permit the granules to be removed from the backing sheet. This then yields a three-dimensional product in which the ink areas are retained on the sheet as raised areas and the depressed areas occur due to the removal of the non-inked granules by the mechanical brushing apparatus herein.

In the embodiment shown in the FIGURE, the printed and gelled sheet or substrate 2 is passed by and around a roller 4 and under the endless brush structure 6. The substrate 2 will pass between the endless brush 6 and a back-up plate 8. The back-up plate 8 is adjustable so that there is a uniform brushing pressure applied against the substrate. The plates must be made adjustable for securing the initial brushing pressure and then to compensate for future wear on the brushes.

The endless brush 6 is a band-type brush which is approximately 200 inches long and consists of five sideby-side bands with 3% inch long crimped stainless steel bristles which vary from 0.009 to 0.012 inch in diameter. The brush is so mounted that it will brush transversely of the direction that the substrate 2 is moving. The substrate 2 is passed around the support apparatus to be described later on and comes back around on the opposite side of the endless brush 6. Here a second back-up plate 1 0 is provided so that the substrate 2 may be held against the opposite side of the endless brush. Consequently, the endless brush will brush the substrate twice as it passes by the brush structure. It is obvious from this arrangement that the endless brush will initially brush from the first side of a sheet to the opposite side thereof as the sheet passes by the brush the first time, but as the sheet passes by the brush the second time, the brush will then be brushing from the opposite side across to the first side. Consequently, a sheet will be brushed transversely of its direction of movement and in both directions across the substrate.

It is obvious that the endless brush structure will do an excellent job of removing dryblend particles from those groove design areas of the pattern which extend directly or substantially transverse to the sheet. However, groove designs which extend longitudinally of the substrate will not be fully cleaned out by the endless brush structure. The endless brush structure will be passing across a groove which at most would probably be one-half inch in width. The best way of cleaning out a groove that runs longitudinally of the pattern is by brushing in a direction longitudinally of the pattern.

Consequently, two additional brush structures 12 and 14 are provided. The substrate passes from the endless brush 6 and the back-up plate 8 down through rotary brush 12 and its back-up plate 13 and then on around to rotary brush 14 and its back-up plate 15 and then back to the endless brush structure with its back-up plate 10. Back-up plates 13 and 15 are also made adjustable to ensure uniform brushing pressure. The brush structures 12 and 14 are 8 inch diameter steel rolls which have been wrapped with Ashworth Bros.

Fancy Card Clothing, which is 1% inches wide and it contains bristles of N0. 40 wire, 1% inches in length with a bent end. The rotary brushes l2 and 14 extend across the full width of the sheet and brush the sheet in the longitudinal direction of movement of the sheet. Rotary brush l2 brushes in a direction along with the mevement of the sheet while brush 14 brushes in a direction opposite to the movement of the sheet. The bent bristle structure of the rotary card clothing brushes is so positioned on each brush that the bent bristle is directed so that it will flail against the surface rather than dig into the surface being brushed.

The substrate is moving at a speed of approximately 35-50 feet per minute. The endless brush unit is operated at a linear speed for the bristles of 900 to 1,500 feet per minute. The rotary brushes are operated at a tangential bristle speed in the range of 1,000 to 4,000 feet per minute. The endless brush operates to particularly clean out groove areas which extend substantially transverse to the direction of sheet movement, while the rotary brushes work to particularly clean out groove areas which extend substantially longitudinally to the direction of sheet movement. Both brushes operate on groove areas which extend between those two above directions. As a result of the actual four brushings of the sheet with the brush structures herein, it is possible to remove all of the porous dryblend material which does not contain gelled ink. After the final brushing, the substrate 2 passes around its final roller 16 and off to further processing. Rollers 18, 20, 22 and 24 are used to direct the substrate from the endless brush around past the two rotary brushes and back again to the endless brush.

While the brush structures herein have been found to be particularly useful, it is possible that other brush structures could be utilized containing both metallic and non-metallic bristles. It is also possible that the substrate could be fed in different ways past the brushes.

It is possible that the substrate could be passed around a roller and both rotary brushes operate on the sheet material as it passes around the roller. It is likewise possible that the substrate could be passed twice by the endless brush and then passed by the two rotary brushes which are mounted in a following sequence in line. It is believed that the effective combination involves a brushing of the sheet twice transversely to the sheet, once in either direction, and twice longitudinally of the sheet, once in the direction of sheet movement, and once opposite to the direction of sheet movement.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for brushing relatively loosely bound granular material from a sheet containing relatively fixedly bound granular material and relatively loosely bound granular material in a pattern arrangement, the combination comprising a brush structure operating to brush the sheet in a direction transverse to the direction of sheet movement, a second brush structure operating to brush the sheet material in a direction along with the direction of sheet movement, a third brush structure operating to brush the sheet in a direction opposite to the direction the sheet is moving, and then a fourth brush structure operating to brush the sheet in a direction transverse to its movement and in a direction opposite to the direction the first brush moved transverse to the sheet.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first and fourth brushing structures are actually an endless brush structure and the sheet is fed past first one side of the endless brush structure and then past the opposite side of the endless brush structure to secure the brushing of the sheet in the directions transverse to the sheet travel.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the second and third brush structures are rotary card clothing brushes which contain bent bristles, said rotary brushes extend across the full width of the sheet. 

1. An apparatus for brushing relatively loosely bound granular material from a sheet containing relatively fixedly bound granular material and relatively loosely bound granular material in a pattern arrangement, the combination comprising a brush structure operating to brush the sheet in a direction transverse to the direction of sheet movement, a second brush structure operating to brush the sheet material in a direction along with the direction of sheet movement, a third brush structure operating to brush the sheet in a direction opposite to the direction the sheet is moving, and then a fourth brush structure operating to brush the sheet in a direction transverse to its movement and in a direction opposite to the direction the first brush moved transverse to the sheet.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first and fourth brushing structures are actually an endless brush structure and the sheet is fed past first one side of the endless brush structure and then past the opposite side of the endless brush structure to secure the brushing of the sheet in the directions transverse to the sheet travel.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the second and third brush structures are rotary card clothing brushes which contain bent bristles, said rotary brushes extend across the full width of the sheet. 